I've had it with MCI Relay services!

Nesmuth

Nesmuth

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Part of our agency's mission is to cultivate positive relations with suppliers and grantmakers. And this includes knowing all about their lifestyles, especially their office personalities. We keep a data base of things that they most likely like to keep in their offices.

This AM I came upon an advertisement for a painting I felt that one of grantmakers would like in her office. I used MCI relay to call the number to try get the painting. Well the owner of the painting wasnt home so I left contact info to reach me at the office.

Just an hour ago I had an associate contact the painting owner and she connected to him only to find out that he had been trying to reach me all day through the relay as he is familiar with the deaf people using the relay. He wasnt able to reach me because the relay operator this morning misstated the phone number actually said "959" instead of "949" for the area code.

Anyways I am getting the painting tonight hopes the painting will translate into a meaty grant once its in the grantmaker's office.

Well if MCI wants to do business with the deaf they need not to piss of people especially people of my position in the deaf society!

Richard
 
Ok, now that you've let it out, what are you going to do? No more MCI/Verizon/IP Relay/whatever they're calling themselves today Relay. So you're gonna use some cans and strings to make calls yourself or something?

And really! "need not to piss of people especially people of my position in the deaf society!"

Are you so important that they can't afford to ignore you? Plenty of relay companies have pissed me off -- and others -- and they keep on ticking. I'd love to see someone take their piss and vinegar and actually accomplish something it -- sadly, I don't think you're one of those people. The world does not rotate around Richard -- the world rotates around big relay companies who do everything they can to shaft a deaf person using relay.
 
Couldn't have said it better myself

Wow, Dennis, way to let 'im have it!
 
mci/verizon does not give two Sh1t5 about pissing u off. they are human, they make errors. next time the nbr shd be repeated more than once for clarification. u are in no way shape or form a high enough person in society (deaf or hearing) to effect anything having to do with the business of relay. if u want to use ur "high" stature in deaf society, why not invite everyone to use user id's and passwords so relay can minimize the amount of fraudulent calls? that is a major reason why relay operators hate their jobs. how would u feel if u had to call 25 different nbrs to different states and ask people if they carry paint or puppies or funeral supplies? and on top of that, u have to explain relay to all of them. how would u feel? would u feel like u are contributing something to deaf culture by being a relay operator? i dont think so. go use ur "high" status to do something useful and leave the operators alone, we get enough of ur filth all day long at work. we are human and humans make errors. cld make a funny god joke right now, but not going to :Owned:
 
AmIAnOprQQ said:
mci/verizon does not give two Sh1t5 about pissing u off. they are human, they make errors. next time the nbr shd be repeated more than once for clarification. u are in no way shape or form a high enough person in society (deaf or hearing) to effect anything having to do with the business of relay. if u want to use ur "high" stature in deaf society, why not invite everyone to use user id's and passwords so relay can minimize the amount of fraudulent calls? that is a major reason why relay operators hate their jobs. how would u feel if u had to call 25 different nbrs to different states and ask people if they carry paint or puppies or funeral supplies? and on top of that, u have to explain relay to all of them. how would u feel? would u feel like u are contributing something to deaf culture by being a relay operator? i dont think so. go use ur "high" status to do something useful and leave the operators alone, we get enough of ur filth all day long at work. we are human and humans make errors. cld make a funny god joke right now, but not going to :Owned:
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Registration isn't the answer. The scammers would be able to fake the registration process. How do you propose that every deaf person prove their hearing loss in a quick, easy and cost-effective fashion? The Relay Missouri folks when I was on board talked about such downsides to a registration process. It isn't the answer to curtailing those kinds of calls.
 
I'm putting it bluntly

I am so sick of every other deaf relay user thinking that operators are out to get them! What makes you think that we hate you that much that we would purposely do that???? What???

I'm about to blow off some steam because this needs to be said....

I don't know what makes you or anyone think that Operators just want you to call so we be like 'oh look another deaf person how am i going to piss him off today?" NO!!! Most of us LOVE our jobs but absolutely HATE how WE are TREATED by it's Legitmate users. I get scammers who are nicer to me then the deaf, hoh, or speech disabled. THAT is sad. Some days i wonder why I even keep my job because i'm obviously not appreciated for the hard work that I do in trying to relay the call and insure that each user get what he or she needs whether it is 100 peices of glass or to make a doctor appt.

Oh and on another note while I'm ranting

RELAY OPERATORS CAN NOT JUST WAVE A WAND AND GET YOU A LIVE REP!

WE CAN NOT JUST PRESS BUTTONS TO GET YOU ONE!!! IT IS AGAINST THE FCC AND FEDERAL LAWS THAT OUR COMPANY IS BUILT AND RAN ON!

SO PLS FOR MY SANITY STOP YELLING AT ME CUSSING ME OUT AND COMPAINING TO MY MANAGERS THAT IM A LOUSY OPR BECAUSE LIVE REP IS NOT AN OPTION!!!!!!!!!!

It's annoying it's rude and absolutely makes me hate most deaf users. I hate to say it but it does.

There are very few relay users, most VCO, that i LOVE absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE taking there calls. WHY?? Because they are patient, they are nice and they appreciate the service we are TRYING to provide to the deaf community.

SO.. the next time you call into the MCI/Verizon/IP/ or whatever else Relay system that you use to take into concideration that the relay operators are doing the best they possibly can to provide you with the best possible cust svc there is.

Ok.. I"m done... hope ya'll have a great night.
 
??MCI?? MCI is no longer service. MCI is sold to Verzion.

PS Dont blame Relay operator for hang up cause some company or person think you are selling markets, scam or other reasons.
 
In Regards to Wrong Numbers Being written Down

One major problem with wrong numbers being written down is not always the fault of the operator, but the person on the other end of the line. I had a deaf user, today, that kept typing Salter Street, I tried saying it very slowly and clearly because the person on the other end kept saying "Are you saying Sawyer Street?,". Now, the phone company has this stupid rule that we are not able to go back and repeat anything so when the idiot voice user kept saying" Opr are you saying Sawyer Street?,". I had to keep redirecting him to talk to the deaf user only. I broke a relay rule and rather than just voicing verbatim, I spelled it out to him (even though the customer had not asked me to do so) S A L T E R , I said. The hearing guy responded, " Yeah I got it you are on Sawyer Street,". Relay rules do not allow me to correct the guy, I have to type that out to the deaf user and hope that the misinformation gets corrected. Sadly enough, if the information does not get clarified, we as operators are prevented from doing anything about it. Believe it or not, we can even get into serious trouble for doing something so simple as to go back and repeat a phone number if someone asks us to do so ( why, I can not understand, because being able to go back and repeat could save alot of errors) Relay operators like myself and many others, could do alot better service for the people that we are trying to help, if the PHONE Companies did not have such ridiculous rules. In order for this to change, I think that alot of relay users should complain to the phone companies, rather than blame the operator, blame our bosses. For instance, I was being monitored, by a supervisor, not too long ago, I had a call, where there was alot of loud talking in the bkgd and the person asked me to repeat the last line that was typed. To save time, I went ahead and repeated the line and got into trouble for trying to make the call flow smoother. The misinformation should be the companies ( Sprint, AT&T, Verizon) fault and not the fault of the operator, who can get into trouble for trying to make things easier on the customer.
 
people that use relay are just not that smart the majority of the time. the people u call dont always articulate every syllable when speaking. so when they say "i m on my way to the house" it comes out sounding like "i m omy way tur dun". so just remember that operators are humans and humans make mistakes. we cant always make the voice user say something any clearer. if u call a ghetto a$$ person and they speak in ebonics, we cant make them learn proper english while on a call.

and yes, mci sold to verizon. why? because mci was corrupt. kind of like the federal government is with SSI.
 
Yes.. SO Why don't you all remember the next time you try calling in to whatever company you call into that it's now the operators fault. We would more then likely LOVE to help you but the company's rules prevent us to. And if we complain guess what we get fired, written up or whatever else they can think to do to us. So you might get that one REALLY nice operator who helped you out got you to that LIVE REP and all of a suddent you might not see him or her every again and notice that more operators arn't quite so helpful because that NICE operator got FIRED for helping YOU.

See something wrong with this picture???? We sure do.
 
lizzardhere said:
It's annoying it's rude and absolutely makes me hate most deaf users. I hate to say it but it does.
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Whoa, hate is a very strong word, I don't have any hate in my bone, and just because some deaf users complaint about how relay operators are or run etc, but it does go both ways, I've use relay service all the time, but not MCI, but I've used i711 and tty relay, I have no problem with them at all, they're there for one reason, to help us place a call where a business or people who don't have a tty, without the relay's help, I wouldn't have no way of getting through to anyone....


I show my respect to ALL relay operators, and I even tell them to thank you and have a nice day before I hung up, so believe me there are some deaf users out there who do show their respect to relay operators, maybe you will have a few rude ones, but believe me there are rude people everywhere not only from these deaf users....

My family always complains about the relay service how slow they are when they relay messages back and fourth, I tell them to be patient, give it some time, cause that the only way I am able to get through them is using the relay, so there are times I do stand up against them, other times I understand where they're coming from, it does go both ways, sometimes people are too busy to sit on line for a long period of time waiting for a message to get across...
 
Nesmuth said:
Part of our agency's mission is to cultivate positive relations with suppliers and grantmakers. And this includes knowing all about their lifestyles, especially their office personalities. We keep a data base of things that they most likely like to keep in their offices.

This AM I came upon an advertisement for a painting I felt that one of grantmakers would like in her office. I used MCI relay to call the number to try get the painting. Well the owner of the painting wasnt home so I left contact info to reach me at the office.

Just an hour ago I had an associate contact the painting owner and she connected to him only to find out that he had been trying to reach me all day through the relay as he is familiar with the deaf people using the relay. He wasnt able to reach me because the relay operator this morning misstated the phone number actually said "959" instead of "949" for the area code.

Anyways I am getting the painting tonight hopes the painting will translate into a meaty grant once its in the grantmaker's office.

Well if MCI wants to do business with the deaf they need not to piss of people especially people of my position in the deaf society!

Richard
Click to expand...


Richard,

It seem to me that they made a simple error, you could have ask them to repeat the number to be sure they have the correct one, before leaving it on an anwering machine...There's no reason to get all uptight over this, people makes mistakes all the time, that's life, we learn by those mistakes and move on....smile
 
Well I"m sure you ready the whole thing.

When I get yelled at on a day to day basis by deaf people for stupid idiotic things that i have no control over and there attitude is completely not nessassary and I get it on a regular basis from state relay calls yeah.. makes me a little irate and makes me dislike the deaf community.

Now as I'm sure you did read.. that those that are nice.. say thank you and are patient with us as well I have no problems with..

But don't come on the line attacking me for your crappy day or whatever pissed you off.. and done sit there on the other end of the line blaming me because a recording doesn't have the option for a live rep or whatever else.. it's not my fault.

That would make you made, make you irate and beleive it or not.. it happens to me at least 5 times a day.

So my frustration is rather legitamate.
 
when someone connects to relay, and the deaf user types "get me a live rep opr" and i listen to the first tree of options and there is not an option to get a live rep, i am not able to choose an option and just randomly press buttons to get to a dept that has a live person in it. i did that to help someone once, and it just so happen to be while i was being monitored. u know when u call some company and the recording states "ur call may be monitored or recorded for quality purposes" well that is an actual policy that alot of companies use. relay is no exception. we get monitored on a very regular basis to ensure that we are not getting involved in the convo and make sure that we say everything that was typed and do it properly. well since i was caught for HELPING a deaf person, i was penalized and due to things like that, i can no longer even read or do homework in between calls anymore. so when u say u have had it with relay services... dont just say it, live it. if u are fed up with us, then go find another service that has the access and ease that we have. and the accuracy, and efficiency, and everything else that we do to make sure deaf people are satisfied with out services. if i didnt have a car note that was damn near $600 a month, i would quit in a heart beat.

u arent the only one fed up with relay service, I AM TOO!!!!:pissed:
 
Rude Users

I had a call to UPS only a day or two ago. When the option that the user wanted was not on the recording they started typing "Shut up Opr and Pay Attention, Opr Shut Up ,".
After I got a live rep on the line, the information that the rep was wanting was not the information that the user was providing. What do I get ? ( Opr u had better be paying attention because I hate repeating myself, relay my info) . When I informed the user that I was relaying the information provided, the user types F***k You and then disconnects. Like Lizzardhere was talking about. When this happens several times a day, it pushes all of your buttons. Another case in point ( a case that happens alot ) sometimes when a company puts me on hold, for reasons unknown to me, the line gets disconnected. Believe me, I hate it when that happens just as much as the relay user. Yet, when I inform them that the line got disconnected, I get asked "Why you hung up ?," then I get insulted. Cable companies are the worst,like comcast. They tell you to hold, you get placed on hold, and then all of a sudden the line disconnects. Whether they deliberately do it or not, I have no way of knowing, but remember this, when you get put on hold and the line just disconnects, it is as much of an irritation to the opr as it is to the person that is trying to get through. I have lost many a lunch break, because I get some 800 number, where the first live person that you get places you on hold the minute that they hear the words relay and then hang up on you, and in order to get anything accomplished for the relay user you have to continually redial over and over and get the same thing, hoping that somehow you will get a rep that is going to help you.
 
lizzardhere said:
I am so sick of every other deaf relay user thinking that operators are out to get them! What makes you think that we hate you that much that we would purposely do that???? What???

I'm about to blow off some steam because this needs to be said....

I don't know what makes you or anyone think that Operators just want you to call so we be like 'oh look another deaf person how am i going to piss him off today?" NO!!! Most of us LOVE our jobs but absolutely HATE how WE are TREATED by it's Legitmate users. I get scammers who are nicer to me then the deaf, hoh, or speech disabled. THAT is sad. Some days i wonder why I even keep my job because i'm obviously not appreciated for the hard work that I do in trying to relay the call and insure that each user get what he or she needs whether it is 100 peices of glass or to make a doctor appt.

Oh and on another note while I'm ranting

RELAY OPERATORS CAN NOT JUST WAVE A WAND AND GET YOU A LIVE REP!

WE CAN NOT JUST PRESS BUTTONS TO GET YOU ONE!!! IT IS AGAINST THE FCC AND FEDERAL LAWS THAT OUR COMPANY IS BUILT AND RAN ON!

SO PLS FOR MY SANITY STOP YELLING AT ME CUSSING ME OUT AND COMPAINING TO MY MANAGERS THAT IM A LOUSY OPR BECAUSE LIVE REP IS NOT AN OPTION!!!!!!!!!!

It's annoying it's rude and absolutely makes me hate most deaf users. I hate to say it but it does.

There are very few relay users, most VCO, that i LOVE absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE taking there calls. WHY?? Because they are patient, they are nice and they appreciate the service we are TRYING to provide to the deaf community.

SO.. the next time you call into the MCI/Verizon/IP/ or whatever else Relay system that you use to take into concideration that the relay operators are doing the best they possibly can to provide you with the best possible cust svc there is.

Ok.. I"m done... hope ya'll have a great night.
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I agree iwth u. I am always courteous to the relay operator by always saying thank u for making the call(s) or telling them have a good day cuz I really appreciate the job they are doing. Without u guys, we deaf people wouldnt be able to make phone calls. I have known a few deaf friends of mine who are rude to the operators or blame them for the calls going wrong. I really do not get that. I try to explain to them that operators are human but they didnt want to listen so I just let it go. I think it is wrong.

I have learned a lot from u and other operators' postings in this and other threads about the rules of your jobs. I really appreciate it and it helps me understand a lot better about what goes on at the relay headquarters. Wow.

Many thanks to u and others for taking on this job and I hope more deaf customers will be more pleasant and appreciative. :)

As for saying that u hate deaf people is kinda going too far dont u think? Yes, there are a lot of deaf people who behave like that but not all of us are like that. Generalizing hurts everyone.
 
snakeplissken22 said:
I had a call to UPS only a day or two ago. When the option that the user wanted was not on the recording they started typing "Shut up Opr and Pay Attention, Opr Shut Up ,".
After I got a live rep on the line, the information that the rep was wanting was not the information that the user was providing. What do I get ? ( Opr u had better be paying attention because I hate repeating myself, relay my info) . When I informed the user that I was relaying the information provided, the user types F***k You and then disconnects. Like Lizzardhere was talking about. When this happens several times a day, it pushes all of your buttons. Another case in point ( a case that happens alot ) sometimes when a company puts me on hold, for reasons unknown to me, the line gets disconnected. Believe me, I hate it when that happens just as much as the relay user. Yet, when I inform them that the line got disconnected, I get asked "Why you hung up ?," then I get insulted. Cable companies are the worst,like comcast. They tell you to hold, you get placed on hold, and then all of a sudden the line disconnects. Whether they deliberately do it or not, I have no way of knowing, but remember this, when you get put on hold and the line just disconnects, it is as much of an irritation to the opr as it is to the person that is trying to get through. I have lost many a lunch break, because I get some 800 number, where the first live person that you get places you on hold the minute that they hear the words relay and then hang up on you, and in order to get anything accomplished for the relay user you have to continually redial over and over and get the same thing, hoping that somehow you will get a rep that is going to help you.
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I dont know how people assume that it is the operator's fault for the hang ups. Whenever I get a hang up, I automatically get mad and frustrated at the company or person that I am calling to. Not for a min that the thought of it being the operator's fault crossed my mind.

I hate those 800 numbers in which they give us several numbers to pick from to proceed to the next step. I think the general public hates them anyway. LOL!
 
To relay users...after reading the venting from the relay operators, can u stop blaming or cussing the operators out? The more u do that, the more stress u will cause for them on their jobs, the more likely they will leave their jobs and word will get around that being a relay operator is very stressful. Then, that means people wont want to apply for the jobs and what happens? No more relay service and our freedom of being able to call anyone we want is taken away.

To those who have cussed relay operators for something that they have no control, pls rethink your behaviors and relax. Be mad at the business or the person u are calling for screwing up the phone calls not at the operators.
 
I wish all businesses would have emails and text messaging systems. It would certainly save a lot of time and trouble for those who don't have phones. :)

For instance, pizza delivery drivers should have a special phone at work that sends text messages so that we know they're coming. :)
 
Company Rules need to be changed

Thank you Shel 90 for being so supportive. Truly, if anyone is to blame for alot of the mess that is currently going on with Relay, I would say that it has to be the phone companies themselves. Some of us (myself included) have even been written up or warned on the job for breaking some procedures in order to actually HELP the person trying to make the phone call. At times, many of us feel like the companies are trying to make it easier on the fraud and the prank calls than they are trying to help the very people that the service was intended for. Not, too long ago, I was unknowningly being monitored on a call where the deaf person had a question about computer repairs. The store kept hanging up on me, they kept saying stuff like " We don't know how to use relay," The deaf person kept instructing me to redial. About the fourth time the store hung up on me, when I was instructed to redial rather than say the word relay I said " This is an operator with a customer on the line that is deaf and has some questions about computer repairs, ". The store clerk who had been hanging up on me said "Oh, Oh I am sorry I thought that you were a telemarketeer trying to sell me something,". The call flowed smoothly from there. I was given all sorts of lectures by management for doing that and given a low score. The manager that was monitoring me told me that since the deaf user had not instructed me to do that I had taken control of the call. So, alot of the blame lies in the phone companies themselves ( complaints to them needs to be made , I think) and here is a tip that I would like to suggest. If your trying to place a call to a company that is not taking your call, a good way to get through is to type to the opr something like "Opr, tell them -- and then give a specific instructions,". Believe it or not, you would be surprised at how many businesses fly off the handle when they here the word relay. Many times in a day I get responses from people yelling things like " RELAY ! WHAT IS RELAY!! DO YOU REALIZE THAT YOU ARE CALLING A BUSINESS ?" What irritates me most is when I am calling doctor's office and getting those types of responses. Luckily enough, on alot of doctor's offices, a good tip is when the person ( and alot of people do this) types to me "schedule an appt", . When that happens, I say to the office "IP RELAY **** with a relay call from a caller trying to schedule an appt,". Or when someone types to me "Call this nbr about a job ", I can say "IP Relay **** with a relay call from a person inquiring about a job",. Point being, if you are calling a business that you are not sure may or may not know about relay, typing a quick tip beside the nbr can help tend to get your call through alot quicker. On an amusing note, I called a Deaf Interpreter Service, not too long ago and when the person answered the phone and I identifed myself they semi-yelled " No, I have no idea what you are talking about, what is relay? I have never heard of anything like this ,". Maybe they were new on the job.
 
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